The Xmas Eve/Day Thread

[Alix]

Not everyone spends Xmas with other people for lots of different reasons.

For me, every other year is my year off Xmas as Chimp is with her dad. I'll have a curry for lunch, catch up on some DIY I never normally get round to, watch some TV and just generally have a day off. We do a second Xmas the following week.

I'm quite happy in this, but it can be a *little* bit lonely not wanting to bother those who are with their families on the big day itself

So if you find yourself in the same boat, for whatever reason, or you just fancy dropping in for a friendly chat, here's a thread for that. I've totally nicked the idea from Sarah Millican who does similar on X. Or used to, before she left.

Especially interested in alternative Xmas day meals... Food is always good

Mine is a katsu curry from Tesco, complete with naan and Indian snacks, with a Gü pudding to finish. I also have a cheeze board too - hoping it doesn't taste like baby vomit smells.

 

[Bowser]

For us Xmas feels a bit like the downtime between the final theme park trips of the year!

My sons autism means he has no interest in presents, games, Santa, the food or lore etc. He used to be terrified of people coming round but he's fine with that now so we will have family for lunch over the next 2 days but it's still difficult not being able to go out much and always a bit sad at times. My wife still gets quite into it though and there's more of her family about so it's still nice too.

I'd love us to go to somewhere like Efteling over these days knowing it'll be something he really enjoys rather than a few days of him tolerating being stuck at home in a miniature lockdown. Maybe next year!

In terms of alternative Xmas Day meals, before my son was born we were both vegetarian and i was more of a budding chef so once made an extravagant multi-dish curry that went down well!

 

[Matt.GC]

As much as I slag Christmas off, I am very lucky that I have an amazing family to spend the day with. I can imagine it must be very hard if you have a little one and can't spend Christmas with them.

Christmas is a strange one for me. As soon as the BBQ stuff is taken off for September, the Halloween stuff goes out, and the first Advent Calendars go out, it just gets worse and worse from there. December itself is hell, with no time to do Christmas shopping, people letting you down, and the general public being horrible. I'm sick of Christmas music and all things traditionally Christmas related the week before, and my job has pretty much ruined the part of the season I used to love.

But the day itself has changed. As soon as I leave Christmas Eve, I get this feeling of relief. My daughter wraps my partners presents for me thank goodness, so I fell asleep last night watching Die Hard, woke up with terrible back pain this morning and feeling exhausted. But other than a potential callout because someone has kicked a door of the shop or a chiller breaks down, I can chill out eating watching movies knowing that my store isn't trading. Only 2 days a year I can actually do this.

Back to it tomorrow of course, but it feels less stressful knowing the world isn't back to normal yet. Come the end of the week, I'll just be looking forward to Easter. I like Easter. Some of the good aspects of Christmas, but with significantly fewer downsides. And after that, is the summer. And I love the summer, as it gives me a sense of freedom.

Lastly, it's a bit of strange one this year. My youngest dropped the bombshell last week that she knew Father Christmas wasn't real. Kind of glad that she's figured it out (she didn't believe last year but just played along) as we'd hate to be the ones to have to shatter her world before secondary school. But it now means there were no stockings last night, no mince pie and carrot left out, and some of the magic that you see through your children's eyes has gone. That's all 3 of them now, and we've been enjoying playing this game for 15 years. I even did a phone call to the boys when they were younger putting on the big man's voice, and the excitement and looks on their faces will stay with me forever.

My family is getting older and now that's it until they bless us with grandchildren. But even with 2 teenage boys as tall as me and a pre-teen girl knocking around, they're still happy and greatful today. And it makes me feel better that they were thankful for all the stuff we did for them over the years. They don't see a lot of me between 18th and Christmas day, but now they're older they know why I do it. And we had a conversation last night about all the other people, including kids they go to school with, who are a lot less fortunate.

That's what Christmas should really be about. They're great kids, and very compassionate and I'm very proud of them all.

 

[pluk]

Drinking prosecco and eating cheesy footballs while my daughter covers everything I own in glitter. That's Christmas.

 

[Alix]

Well, it's your Christmas...

I successfully stripped all the old sealant from my bath, before relaxing watching the Diplomat. Discovered a slight hitch with the bath so need the shops to reopen before I can reseal it - best laid plans and all that

 

[QTXAdsy]

I'm staying at my sister's place with her family for Christmas and I've been getting drunk with Heineken for most of the day.

God bless the Dutch.

 

[pluk]

Well, it's your Christmas...

Well, obviously. But mostly it's my Christmas this year, as I've worked most of them for the last 15 years and will probably work most of them for the next 15. It's usually 4AM alarm, a crap sandwich on the go, and seeing a procession of people who really don't want to see you on Christmas day. I'll take this as the preferable version!

 

[Jonathan]

Church in London this morning, too much for dinner today, some good presents, bit of a walk, Wallace and Gromit was excellent…Pretty good day other than when my dad decided to start whinging after the King’s Speech.

 

[Matt N]

My Christmas was probably a little more traditional than some in the thread, but it was still a really nice (albeit somewhat tiring) day.

We stayed at home and had my grandparents over for dinner. Me and a couple of others had turkey, but my mum also cooked a salmon wellington. We played Outsmarted (a bit like Trivial Pursuit, but the questions are on an iPad app and are updated to keep them relevant. You can also pick the categories!), and we also did a quiz!

After the grandparents went home at 9:30pm, we then sat down and watched the Gavin & Stacey finale, which was excellent!

Merry Christmas, everybody!

 

[Itgoeshowhigh]

We haven’t “done” Xmas yet, we’ve decided to have Xmas day on Saturday.

My parents always come to stay for Xmas and were planning on coming Monday. However one of my kids has been quite unwell with this horrible fluey virus so we decided to move it back a bit so the old bids don’t catch it.

My kids are older teenagers now and we don’t make that big a fuss about Xmas anymore. We dont really do presents anymore, kids are happier to get cash and all I want is a box of chocolates. For us it’s mainly about Christmas dinner and all being together. (My parents live 3 hours away so we don’t see them that much).

It’s also worked out a bit better because my eldest had to work yesterday (Xmas day) but has Saturday off.

It’s typical though because I usually have to work xmas day and I actually had the day off this year.

So yesterday we had a quiet day, we all agreed to absolutely deny it was Xmas day yesterday and we’re counting the sleeps to Saturday!

 

[GaryH]

Mine was starting to cook the turkey on Christmas Eve and settling down with tv and some snacks only midway for my partners mum to call saying she had been advised by 111 to go to A&E and could we take her. Off with the oven and drive to pick her up. Get to hospital at 8:30pm and leave at 2:30am. Turkey went in the bin. Thankfully local BP garage was open which has a M&S inside it so managed to get a chicken. Turns out her mum had a bad dose of the flu and it was affecting her chest.

Wake up Christmas morning knackered only for my partner to now have the flu and unable to get out of bed so it’s up to me to save the day for the little one and do the cooking and everything else.

Still - managed to have a nice day , pity about the turkey!